30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.95 percent with an average 0.5 point for the week ending May 25, 2017, down from last week when it averaged 4.02 percent. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.64 percent.

15-year FRM this week averaged 3.19 percent with an average 0.5 point, down from last week when it averaged 3.27 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 2.89 percent.

“As we predicted, the 30-year mortgage rate fell 7 basis points this week in a delayed reaction to last week’s sharp drop in Treasury yields,” said Sean Becketti, chief economist at Freddie Mac, in a statement. “The survey rate stands at 3.95 percent today, a new low for the year.”

Mortgage rates:

News from earlier this week

The March 2017 existing-home sales numbers from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) contained some hope that maybe (maybe!) inventory was about to normalize, with sales reaching their fastest seasonally adjusted annualized growth pace since February 2007.

That hope was dashed with the release of NAR’s April numbers. Sales fell 2.3 percent from March’s rate, although they showed an improvement (by 1.6 percentage points) over April 2016’s sales metrics.

And the median number of days that a home is on the market dropped to a new low in April — just 29 days. That’s down from 34 days in March and 39 days in April 2016; 52 percent of homes sold in April were on the market for less than a month.

First-lien mortgage delinquencies rose by 13 percent, the largest monthly increase since November 2008

Month-over-month, the number of borrowers past due on mortgage payments increased by 241,000

April’s delinquency rate increase was primarily calendar-driven (due to both the month ending on a Sunday and March being the typical calendar-year low) and largely isolated to early-stage delinquencies

The inventory of loans in active foreclosure continues to decline, hitting a 10-year low in April

At just 52,800, April saw the fewest monthly foreclosure starts since January 2005

Prepayment speeds (historically a good indicator of refinance activity) fell by 11 percent from March